Neiridea
by Pixie Angel
Summary: Neiridea has secrets that Hogwarts staff are desperate to keep quiet. But will her need for power overcome Draco's determination to have his reputation untarnished? pg 4 swearing. chapter 2 up.
1. 1

~ Neiridea ~  
  
1.  
  
As she waited with the rest of the first years, on the polished wood floor of the great hall, Neiridea cast her amber eyes around the room. She wasn't used to seeing such splendour, or what humans and wizards mistook for splendour. Great table made of mighty wood and adorned with gold plates, thousands of candles, even the air was thick with the sickly arrogant scent of magic and proud power.  
  
As she looked around at the tables, she saw students chattering animatedly about no doubt trivial and unimportant things. The high table containing teachers was mostly quiet; most of them looked anxious, most likely not looking forward to another year of teaching.  
  
Squinting, she started to focus her eyes on more specific groups of students sitting at the four house tables. At the Hufflepuff table, a chubby boy was pompously speaking to a slightly less than rapt audience, one of whom was bewitching a fork to dance around the salt cellar. At the next table along, decorated in what she took to be Gryffindor colours, two red haired boys who looked very similar where hunched over, talking to the small boy in-between them, quite ignoring the fact that he looked petrified as they pressed something into his hands. Everyone at the next table was looking at a group of three students on the end, they all had their wands pointed at each other in what seemed to be a rather heated argument. A ripple of laughter erupted as a small shot of pink bubbles burst from the wand of a girl with dark sleek hair and covered the face of the boy she was pointing her wand at with bubble-gum coloured orbs.  
  
But her eyes lingered longest at the last table, decorated green and silver. Slytherin colours. She cast her eyes on one group especially. Three boys, each came from three of the noblest wizarding families, each having the purest wizard blood. Her amber eyes flashed yellow with a sense of deep loathing. Her mother had told her what to expect form these three. The blonde one seemed to sense her gaze, because he looked at her, and though he wasn't stupid enough to draw attention by looking at her for any length of time, she was quite clear of the message in his eyes.  
  
"Neiridea. Neiridea." she had been ignoring the voice whispering in her ear for the past five minutes. She didn't want to look around; she wanted to continue looking at the fair-haired boy, wanted him to feel her hate.  
  
"Neiridea!" she felt a sharp tug at her robes and felt a seam split at her shoulder. She sighed and turned eyes filled with intense dislike at the boy beside her.  
  
"What?" she hissed, hoping a venomous tone would discourage the boy from talking to her any further.  
  
"We're about to be sorted. just thought you'd like to know." the boy trailed off... discouraged and put out by Neiridea's obvious antipathy.  
  
"I'm not deaf or blind you know!" she hissed back. To tell the truth, she hadn't noticed until right then that students standing grouped around the sorting hat were disappearing. But she wasn't going to admit that.  
  
A tall, formidable looking woman waited until a small boy had fully found a seat at the hufflepuff table before reading out the next name.  
  
"White, Ajax."  
  
The boy ran a hand through his dishevelled, dark black hair, hair that glinted deep bottle green in the light of the candles. He stepped up to the chair, seemed to regard the hat for a second, then sat down and put it on. It seemed he was sitting there for ages, with the stupid looking hat on his head, shoulders hunched over as he clasped his hands tightly in his lap. Neiridea looked away, ashamed of this sham of a child. She only looked away form the fair haired boy when the hat screeched "HUFFLEPUFF!" loudly, and the first table cheered loudly as he descended, grinning, to join the ranks of his new house.  
  
Neiridea rolled her eyes and sighed, pointed at the tear in her robes with her wand and muttered a repairing spell under her breath.  
  
"White, Neiridea."  
  
Picking up the ends of the robes which she had purposely made four inches too long, so that they covered her feet and swept along the floor, she made her way through the five students left standing, waiting to be sorted. She picked up the hat with disdain and sat down gracefully upon the stool.  
  
'You know which house to put me in, Hat. Let's get it over with, Okay?' she thought, knowing that the hat could hear her.  
  
'Ooh; now I'm being given orders by students, hmm? Hark at that, me, so much older than you, and being told what to do. You know, your brother was much nicer than you at telling me where he wanted to go.'  
  
'I know, he's a weak little coward. But if you dare to even contemplate putting me in that imitation of a collective, I will tear you into pieces.'  
  
'You think I haven't received threats before, Neiridea? You're exactly like your father. He had high ideas too.'  
  
'Why thank you Hat. I didn't expect compliments on my first day. But personally, I think I take after my mother much more.'  
  
'You're ruthless, cunning and determined to push yourself above your upbringing. Is there something you're ashamed of hmmm?' she could hear the smirk in the hats voice.  
  
'You silly little scrap of antiquated cloth. When I become head of Hogwarts and ruler of the wizarding world, I will destroy you and your legend. I will personally pick the army of wizards who are to be trained at this school.'  
  
'Fair enough. We all know what this is leading up to, so why don't we just get it over with Neiridea. You never would have done well in Hufflepuff, too vicious, you're not smart enough for Ravenclaw, nor brave enough for Gryffindor, so it'll have to be-'  
  
"SLYTHERIN!"  
  
She stood up without bothering to remove the hat, so it toppled off her head as she moved towards the cheering green table. The hat took this insult slightly, just a whispered word to McGonagall, who shot Neiridea a vicious look.  
  
As she walked towards her table, she saw her brothers face turn red as a third year hufflepuff asked him something, most likely why he and his sister had ended up in such opposite houses. She looked away so that he wouldn't be able to catch her eye, and took a seat next to a small, pretty first year blonde, who was in the process of having the virtues of being in Slytherin house extolled to her by the blonde boy across the table.  
  
"Draco, you always did say more than was needed." She turned to the blonde girl, whose slightly glazed eyes were now flitting back and forth between Draco Malfoy and Neiridea, unsure of whom to look at. "Slytherin contains the noble blood. The other houses do not."  
  
"You should watch who you speak to like that, Neiridea. Don't forget your place in life just because you made it in by a fluke." he said, his eyes narrowed at her from across the table. Both of them had forgotten about the blonde girl.  
  
"You should watch how you speak to me Draco. Let's not get threatening. We both know who holds the cards here. We both know that I threaten your reputation more than you threaten mine." Her hissed words didn't carry far enough for anyone else to hear the threat. Draco went slightly pale, and then slightly pink then returned to his usual colour.  
  
"Quite, Neiridea." He said, shortly. "Let's not get threatening." He turned away from her and started to devour the food on his plate.  
  
Neiridea turned to her own plate. There wasn't anything on the table she would eat, so she poured herself a glass of water and sipped at it, occasionally joining in with the conversation of her fellow housemates to point out a fact or correct them on how one would carry out a spell. But her heart wasn't in it. Her mind was elsewhere, out in the grounds, looking across the lake and waiting for night.  
  
****Okays. Tell me what you think. There's a twist in the story, so at this point don't make assumptions about anything. Tell me if you like it; tell me if you don't like it. Just generally tell me whats on your mind. **** 


	2. 2

2  
  
Neiridea was mildly surprised to find the girls dormitory lit with soft, warm light, with soft green fabric hangings covering the harsh stone walls. Five four-poster beds, each with pale silver drapes, were arranged around the circular room. Each of the new Slytherin first year girls started unpacking their trunks and moving towards the wardrobe to divide up the hanging space.  
  
"Oh! Look at that! We have one of these at home. I share it with more four sisters." said the blonde that Neiridea had sat next to during dinner. "They have our names there and they slide to the side!" although slightly confusing in her explanation, the girl proceeded to demonstrate while the other girl stood grouped around it. She grabbed all her robes from her trunk, threw them over her arm and moved towards the oak cabinet. She stood squarely in front of it and said in a clear but quiet voice, "Leilani." The doors opened to reveal four small drawers with a space above them about four feet by two feet for hanging robes. The part of the left door that would face inwards of the wardrobe now had a full length mirror on it, and on the other door a brass plaque about the size of a computer keyboard bore the inscription of the girls name.  
  
"There!" after she had hung up her robes, she closed the door, and stepped aside with a flourish, her long blonde hair swishing around her shoulders.  
  
''Very clever. Wizard knowledge and tricks are good for one thing at least.'' She muttered when she moved forward with her robes and started hanging them in the way that Leilani had shown them. When she moved aside to place some ordinary clothes and scarves in the drawers, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror.  
  
As she was hanging her clothes up last, and the other girls had already gone down to the common room to meet everyone, she was alone to examine herself in the polished glass. She was tall for her age, not scrawny, but slim. Dark glossy black hair hung in soft curls that glinted green in the candlelight. Her nose was nobly long, with a small flick at the end, which made her look distinctly feminine. Her lips her thin and dark blood red, as though she was constantly biting them to bring them colour.  
  
Her most unusual features though, were her eyes. Large, amber irises globes framed by long dark eyelashes with eyebrows that were naturally thin and arced, to make her permanently smirking.  
  
"You're Neiridea, right?" she was interrupted by a voice coming from the door. A girl was standing there, although Neiridea noticed that the fire had at some point gone out and with her back to the like, the girl was just a silhouette. Her voice was low and raspy, unidentifiable.  
  
"Yes, Neiridea White. Who are you?" Neiridea drawled slowly. The presence of another person didn't shock her; she was just slightly annoyed that she couldn't see whom she was talking to. The girl didn't move, but closed the door behind her so that the room was completely black. On the upper floors the room would've been lit by the moon, or the stars, but in the dungeons there was no natural light.  
  
"Lets just say that I'm someone who's got your best interests at heart. And lets just say that you should pay attention when I say; leave no. Nothing will get better for you. Life here will not be more enjoyable than life at St Selenes. So leave now. Go live with your mother. Your father will never take you back, despite what you like to tell yourself."  
  
Neiridea hissed and started out across the room, flying at the intruder with both hands raised, sharp nails facing outwards on clawed hands. But her vanity brought her down; she tripped over the four inches of loose robes around her feet and her right knee hit the floor with a loud crack.  
  
She looked up just in time to see the door slam shut. With no light she couldn't see her way around the unfamiliar room. Knowing that she was roughly in the middle of the circular chamber, she lay out and stretched her arms out towards where she thought the door was. Her fingers came in contact with a wooden pole, and she realised that she was feeling one of the posts of a bed. She grasped both hands tightly around the post and started pulling herself on her side towards the bed. Her right knee was throbbing painfully, and it felt like mulch. When she had pulled herself over to the bed she leaned against it, panting heavily.  
  
"Help me," she breathed, squeezing her eyes tight so that tears rolled down her pale cheeks. "Someone come in and help me! Please." her voice wasn't above a whisper, and she knew that her voice would never reach through the heavy oak door, down the girls dorm corridor and into the common room where all the Slytherins where holding a start of term party.  
  
Knowing that there was nothing else for it, she lay down again and stretched out her arms, moving them backwards and forwards, searching for something solid to hold on to. After a few minutes without finding anything, she moaned and pushed herself with her good leg further away form the bed. Eventually her hand met some resistance, and she pulled herself along the skirting against the door.  
  
"Help me." she pounded on the door with weak flailing fists, and when she even stopped hearing any noise she was making, she realised this was no use. The only thing to do was get out the dorm.  
  
But as she craned her neck back she appreciated just how difficult that would be. Yes, the door knob was within her reach, but she'd have to stretch up and the door opened inwards, so she'd have to open it and then move out of the way a sufficient distance to be able to get out.  
  
She grimaced in annoyance at the helpless feeling she experienced not being able to get out of the situation. The one-sided conversation with the girl in the doorway was also snagging at her mind, and the mention of St Selenes.  
  
"Hey, who's blocking the door?!" a voice came from the other side as Neiridea felt something heave against her back.  
  
"Just wait a second. I'll move out the way but don't open the door too wide! I'm HURT!" she yelled back through the door. She grabbed the skirting board again and heaved herself a little way away from the door, so that when it open the light would fall on her.  
  
"Whats going on in here?" leilani had come into the room with Camilla, another first year Slytherin, who's narrow eyes made her look constantly shifty. "Why is there no light? What did you do? We've only been gone five minutes and already there's drama going on! Honestly." She said when she finally stopped talking and looked down to see a panting Neiridea. "What are you doing on the floor? Why do you look so pale? You're clammy... do you feel ill?" she looked alarmed and backed away a step. "Do you thinking it's catching?" she hissed to her companion who, seeming to be more sensible, replied, "No, I think she said she was hurt?"  
  
"For Christ's sake!" panted Neiridea "get a prefect or someone! I'm hurt! I need to see a doctor or nurse or something!"  
  
"That'll be madam Pomfry, she the nurse here, Draco Malfoy was just telling- " she began, before catching the glares she was getting form the girl on the floor. She quickly ran out of the room and came back a few minutes later with two of the older boys.  
  
"Usually boys cant come into the girls dorms," she explained, while the carefully formed a fireman seat to support her on while the girl with the slanty eyes helped to shift her over when they laid the 'seat' on the floor for her to climb into. "But one of the prefects explained to the stairs that this was special circumstances. None of the girls are big enough to hold you." She said cheerfully, painfully oblivious to the moans of pain issuing from her fellow housemate.  
  
She followed the two boys and the girl out of the dorm and into the corridor where seven doors led off into the dormitories of the seven different years of Slytheirn girls.  
  
"Well, I'd love to go with you into the hospital wing, but I think I'd better stay here and sleep. I'll visit you though, never fear!" and she disappeared back into the room.  
  
"Has there ever been another Slytherin as clueless and talkative as her?" Neiridea hissed heavily between her teeth at the two boys carrying her. The laughed softly, although it sounded more like a growl, and carried her down the small flight of stairs into the common room.  
  
"Oh look," drawled a familiar voice from a place by the fire. "Queen Neiridea already has a following. Although I would have been sure that fine people like you would've held out longer than that? Oh well, theres no accounting for dignity!" he smirked at the boys carrying Neiridea as the common room tinkled with mocking laughter.  
  
"T's not like that Malfoy. She's just a girl. Even you're not heartless enough to leave a stray cat wounded and lying around." Replied one of the boys, apparently trying to regain some sense of respectability.  
  
"Oh no, Masters, you're right." Malfoy replied softly, venom and ridiculing dripping form his voice. "I would just kill it outright." His high voice tinkled with laughter along with everyone else, and Masters set his jaw and moved out of the common room.  
  
Neiridea thanked both of them once they got to the hospital wing, but the both hurried down the stairs without saying another word. She was left alone, sitting on a hospital bed on her first night at her new school. Without a sound, she lay down on the white sheets and used the edge of the pillow to wipe away a single tear. When Madam Pomfry examined her knee and gave her a drought to drink, Neiridea didn't say a word, just drank it and lay down; slipping into a light sleep just before light started creeping over the horizon.  
  
****Okays. I suppose that's chappie two up. Again, tell me what you think. I know Neiridea was a bit OOC compared to chap. 1, but how many of you can claim to have been totally normal on the first day of a new school? Tell me if I got malfoy right, and if not, how I can improve. He's quite a big part of this fic. Also, if any reviewers can name as many Slytherins and their respective years, as I keep having to trawl through my copies of the books, or make people up. BTW, this fic is set in the fourth book. **** 


End file.
